I read one of those Oakland General Strike links yesterday and it was like a forty-car pileup in the midst of a major hurricane– in that I just couldn’t stop reading.

Almost nothing but wall to wall American Spectator rejects. Half the rejects crowing about how they’d be right there to grab the jobs that those wretched Occupiers were planning to walk out on. The other half shrieking at the Occupiers for not having jobs. (???) And nearly all of them still feverishly obsessing about fucking ACORN. Yeah. A group that’s been defunct for years now is the secret mastermind behind the Occupiers.

They haven’t seemed – from encampment to encampment – too taken with the luminaries who drop in… but .. we see how it goes…. Apparently he will arrive to Oakland Occupy at about 3:30. BTW, there is a smaller Occupy over in Berkeley, chugging along getting little attention…

We have local elections Nov 8 – big field running to be mayor in SF, LOL – and my guess is the crackdown comes after that… Someone, unknown who, has arranged for Porta Potties to be delivered to SF Oc…. the city made it clear they are not paying for it.

I confess to being driven insane this past month by the spectacle of television pundits professing to be baffled by the meaning of Occupy Wall Street. Good grief. Isn’t the ability to read still a job requirement for a career in journalism? And as last week’s inane “What Do They Want?” meme morphs into this week’s craven “They Want Your Stuff” meme, I feel it’s time to explain something: Occupy Wall Street may not have laid out all of its demands in a perfectly cogent one-sentence bumper sticker for you, Mr. Pundit, but it knows precisely what it doesn’t want. It doesn’t want you.

What the movement clearly doesn’t want is to have to explain itself through corporate television. To which I answer, Hallelujah. You can’t talk down to a movement that won’t talk back to you.

I don’t purport to speak for anyone but myself here, although I spent time this weekend at Occupy Wall Street and my husband spent much of last week adding his voice to the protesters there. I saw an incredible array of people that defy any simple demographic characterization and a broad range of signs that made—imagine!—more than a single point. But if I may hazard an opinion, it would be this: One of the most fatuous themes of mainstream OWS coverage is the endless loop of media bafflement at this movement that doesn’t have a message. Here’s CNN’s Erin Burnett in a classic put-down of the OWS’ refusal to tailor its message to her. It takes a walloping amount of willful cluelessness to look at a mass of people holding up signs and claim that they have no message.

Occupy Wall Street is not a movement without a message. It’s a movement that has wisely shunned the one-note, pre-chewed, simple-minded messaging required for cable television as it now exists. It’s a movement that feels no need to explain anything to the powers that be, although it is deftly changing the way we explain ourselves to one another.

I managed to catch a little of that … last night I htink… for all my bitching and moaning about PBS and esp our local main KQED, I find it very useful in the middle of the night… (and am happy my ntenna is catching it again, for some miraculous reason, LOL)

I think Charlie is dead, but remaining in action, funeral lillies should start growing from his orifices. Which would be an improvement I think… over Ralph Lauren Purple as his haberdasher.

reminds me to go check, I seemed to read things that indicated he might be putting up transcripts again..

[O]n Saturday afternoon, Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed screamed, shouted and threatened representatives of Occupy Atlanta, declaring that those who wanted to be arrested “would get their wish.” After a mobilization of several hundred additional protesters, some barricades and a threatening display of police numbers, City Hall decided not to clear Woodruff Park that night. The mayor declared he would send a delegation of preachers to talk to occupiers, but that this would be their “last chance.”

By Monday, the mayor regained his composure, and called an afternoon press conference in which he declared that Occupy Atlanta was an imminent danger to public health and safety, because of a single gas-fueled electric generator. In the park. Never mind, Occupy Atlanta’s Tim Franzen pointed out, that Atlanta tailgaters at college and NFL football games deploy dozens of these in parking lots every weekend. . . . . .

The $16 muffin that became a reviled symbol of government waste didn’t cost $16 after all.

That’s the new conclusion of Justice Department auditors, who last month had criticized the department for spending $16.80 apiece for the notorious pastries at a conference at the Capital Hilton in Washington.

On Friday, acting Justice ­Department Inspector General Cynthia A. Schnedar issued a revised report on the department’s conference expenditures. Her new finding: The muffins were part of a continental breakfast that also included items such as fruit, coffee, tea, juice and other pastries.

I think since the State makes getting my shitty $140 a week like having my teeth pulled sans Novacaine, they should start providing continental breakfast free– One breakfast for every morning I have to wait beyond the first fucking week after I file. 👿

[J]ust this week, America gloated over the capture, sodomizing then shooting of a trumped up enemy, then stood by as our disneyfied allies barbarically displayed his near-naked corpse in public. . . . .

I’m more and more intrigued …as to who took the following two ‘shots’ of Scott Olsen, and how they were then Stolen? [then] Delivered? (either one, Stolen, then delivered; OR ‘shot’, then delivered,…a possibility, …to my mind) tothe highly Conservative (in the nasty sense of that word) UK Daily Mail:

Both ‘shots’ showed up rapidly at the online Daily Mail, hours (I believe) before it was known he was a Vet,…taken by someone within a foot of him.

I linked to many posts in the early hours of that crime, and I think I saw that bloodied shot once, among those posts. If a person took those shots and they were electronically stolen, I hope the person is safe,….because if so, …their life needs to be protected, by all means necessary.

If a person took those shots and they were electronically stolen, I hope the person is safe,….because if so, …their life needs to be protected, by all means necessary.

of course, ….if not, …they could be quite the OP, …or yeah, a double double ‘mole’ someone just wanting to get that picture (the bloodiest one I’ve seen) out there …in which case, …. I could hardly blame them .

But it was known he was a vet…. he is wearing the sweat shirt or Tshirt with the logo of his peace vet group, black with a white outline dove… iirc there were flags and placards from that group around, often…. he wore fatigues over it… and to my eye, he wore fatigues the way so many ex mil here do… He stood next to a uniformed … Navy I think it was who held a flag as he stood against the line, up at the police line, peacefully but facing off agaisnt the line of cops.

There was a photog there who has spoken out, Finnebaugh, that he stood right behind Olsen… and there were so many people taking camera pics, even as the projectiles and tear gas came, several with larger video cameras… I am thankful that immediately it was clear thre were many photgraphs of him, before during and after. The whole thing was captured. It cannot be lied about… and the Occupy marines now have a reward for the name (which possibly Anonymous has already supplied) of which riot cop was involved.

It has been reported, in one of the great articles at Cpunch on Oakland, that mainstream media turned off their cameras at the worst of the events that night, so thank gd for all the other cameras.

I guess I really should have clarified further, that my meaning was that it was not known that he was a vet, to those not there, … viewing the aftermath. …I was referring to what was available news to those not there …I’t’s certainly not evident to those iniatally viewing the after ‘shots’ ….you can make out the dove on the tee shirt …but you do have to spend some time coming up with a possible Vets for Peace….

(I also should have added that millions are unable to access/view “you tube” et al, ..without going through enormous …expensive hoops one of the things to my pea brain that really needs to be acknowledged by those presuming everyone is totally hooked up, because they happen to be ….)

But that group, members of that group, were known to be at both Oakland and SF Occupy. They may be at Berkeley occupy too, but generally that has been left alone. It chugs on quietly, smaller than the others.

Obviously Oakland was an early flash point, tho it was barely 3 weeks old when struck.

I really don’t understand what issue is here, because for all manner of reason, main streaam media, bloggers (who were there and photographing) citizen journalists, others, all have a reason or several reasons to make it known asap he was a vet. The incident wtih .. oh I forget his name, the vet in NYC had already become news at several levels, and in fact internationally – and gone heavily viral…. it was clear vets joining this was going to be a major story.

at least two in wheelchairs wre gassed… there may have been more, but two have been referred to in media. a man and woman. The man has said an woman unknown to him just grabbed the handles and pushed him and herslef away… I think the woman has said two people propelled her out.

The line against Occupy is talking points whether at DM or thruout the media – it’s all the same, safety, rats, filth… and so on… Democratic as well as RW talking points. I can imagine this IS something that asshole in the Oval is interested n. Scared shitless his big corporate Dem Convention in the south next year will be omigod gasp scream OCCUPIED.

And presto chango he’ll be the Black Daley out of Chicago. No wonder it is widely reported the Daley at his side is leaving next year.

(put that ‘curser’ over ’url’ 1 …. READ IT, ……… and see what it reads “…protesters-evicted-Oakland-camp–rat-infestation.html,” …before it ….re-routes to … a quite different, ‘url’ 2M …”..solidarity-Scott-Olsen.html.” )

More than 20 people were killed when a Taliban suicide car bomber attacked an armored NATO™ąą, shuttle bus in downtown Kabul on Saturday. It was the worst loss of life among American troops in the capital in several years

And hey Math Whizz’ssz,
if ya look at those ~6 …..13 of them, see, were… :roll:.
Oh don’t look at ’em t00 hard, Bobarack O’McNamara
See, ya take the 13 divided by 6 and its only a 216% inoperative body count negatory WIN

You know they are STILL trying to deny rubber bullets were used in Oakland, even as occupiers walk around with dozens in their pockets, that they picked up from the ground… and the enormous hard impact bruising I’ve seen pics of look to be from rubber bullets, a white or less discolored round impact spot and a massive, very dark, large, round bruise …

I think there are images you can post for free if you have a free flickr account and are logged in. Some people use the Creative Commons options that allow others to post their images so long as nothing is being sold in the process. If you have an afternoon evening to kill sometime, it’s worth investigating.

I slap a “copyright” on my collages, but when I post old ads on a separate account I use the “Attribution: Noncommercial” option from Creative Commons. It essentially means, “Help yourself to these pictures, but kindly tell others where you found them.”

[P]erhaps even more appalling was the killing of Fong Lee, 19, by Minneapolis police officer Jason Andersen. Much of the incident was captured on film. Andersen drove across a grassy area in front of school buildings and either struck Lee’s bicycle with his patrol car or caused him to crash. As Lee fled, he was shot in the back six times while running from Andersen. Andersen fired two more shots into Lee once he was already on the ground. Lee’s family and attorneys have always maintained he was unarmed. To cover the shooting, Lee’s family have claimed, police planted a gun on the scene – a gun that had been, according to Lee’s family, in police possession until it showed up next to Lee. The police department disputed these claims. Andersen was not disciplined and a jury, which was all-white, ruled against the family’s claim of excessive force in their civil suit. . . . . .

Chanting, “We are the 99%,” and “Jobs now,” hundreds gathered in Lincoln Park on Saturday afternoon for an Occupy the Hood Milwaukee rally and then marched to the shuttered Tower Automotive plant on Milwaukee’s north side.

Rally organizers said they planned to make this the first of several rallies that aim to steer the Occupy Wall Street movement into city neighborhoods where high unemployment is rampant.

“When we can get people from all walks of life and all ages here, we’re doing something powerful,” said Khalil Coleman of Occupy Milwaukee and Occupy the Hood, as the march got under way, heading down Green Bay Ave. toward Capitol Drive.

“We’re going to do what it takes to get our elected officials to hear us.”

The choice of the former A.O. Smith plant, which got it start making frames for the Model T, once employed nearly 10,000 people and shut its doors in 2006, underscores the attention that needs to be given to the need for jobs, particularly for city residents, speakers at the rally said.

“Once they left there, the community began to suffer,” said Torrie Moffett of 9to5, National Association of Working Women. “There’s no jobs that are sustainable.”

So.

At Thursday's debate, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended their Medicare for All plan. They faced criticism from several rivals, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, who described it as a "bad idea," and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who claimed the bill shows Sanders and Warren do not "trust the American people."

At the third presidential primary debate in Houston, Texas, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Warren also spoke about her stance on U.S. trade policy and how "our trade policy in America has been broken for decades."

After being questioned about the crisis in Venezuela, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his vision of democratic socialism. "I agree with what goes on in Canada and in Scandinavia: guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on Earth not to provide paid family and medical le […]

Debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision grilled former Vice President Joe Biden over the Obama administration's deportation record. Biden refused to answer whether he did anything to prevent Obama from deporting a record 3 million people.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, widening the antitrust probe of Big Tech.

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

A lawyer for former FBI official Andrew McCabe pressed U.S. prosecutors on Friday to drop their politically sensitive case against him, citing reports that suggest they may be having trouble securing criminal charges.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.